NW "Spring Training" Recap

[Scott9999]

As some might have noticed, we cancelled our April 2nd "Spring Training" exercise, due to either lack of interest and/or date conflicts.   Alan (9Mary7) and I did some training on our own, and this is a bit of a post-event-report.

 

This post is mostly a public shout out, telling Alan thanks. 

 

We had pushed planned date to Sunday (3rd), and then again to today (Thursday, 4/7), since his schedule had filled up and it was just the two of us. 

 

I wasn't sure what to expect, or what exactly we would do.  Anyone can (and probably many of us, do), go off to a safe parking lot to run tight circles, for slow-speed maneuvering training.  These big bikes can be tough to keep upright when maneuvering in tight spaces, and in particular, when situations or events suddenly arise that force us to turn the handlebars lock-to-lock at slow speeds.  However, there's a world of difference between just running a circle at your whim and under your control, versus traveling in dictated patterns, where you are forced to lock up, and steer by counterbalance, throttle, clutch, and (as Alan emphasized), the rear brake (never the front).   

 

We didn't put out cones (ok, ok, someone was supposed to bring those, too).   We used parking space lines (i.e. about 8.5" per space, or 17' per 2 spaces side-by-side, nearly a perfect turning distance for these exercises).  We either followed the lines, up the far side of one space over to the far side of the second, or did figure 8's (shown below). 

 

 

 

We finished with "pull outs", i.e. starting from a parking space, turning right or left as tightly as possible, and accelerating into the turn (e.g. as if pulling out into busy traffic).

 

Alan is an experienced instructor.  He's taught motor officers these skills, and has diagrams and plans for the training.  I had thought that my established technique and skills would prove to be adequate, with a little more work.  However, Alan's coaching was fantastic in explaining a few things in ways I hadn't fully considered.  He's a total pro.    If anyone wants to set up a safety class for a group of riders, draft Alan.  He's the guy you want (particularly if the group is ... umm .. maybe in the SE area of the US).

 

I would have taken pictures of our little "event", but one of us dropped our bike, and I don't want to embarrass Alan.  

 

On a totally unrelated subject, however, I discovered when I returned home that my new Wunderlich knock-off crash bars handled their task, shall we say, "unevenly". 

 

Note that while that canted rear bar position makes it significantly easier for me to get my leg over the back seat without barking my ankle on the bar, in fact, the manufacturer neither produces these bars bent like that, nor probably recommends bending them that way.  (Not to mention the side case no longer fits on the bike.)  Something happened while I was riding in slow circles today.  That's all I'm gonna say, to ...err.... protect the innocents (and the village idiot). 🙄😖

 

 

For context, this bar is supposed to look more like this (i.e. perpendicular to the bike).

 

 

 

 

The front bars fared quite well, with only a scratch to show for the service provided.  The right side mirror suffered a few scratches, but no big deal. 

 

 

So, now that the cat is out of the bag, because some blabbermouth told you who dropped his bike (did I tell you about Alan's pretty gray bike?  nevermind) ...  😒

 

I banged up my right side rib cage a bit, but no big deal.  I've injured that side probably a dozen times over the past 30 years, i.e. it's a recurring injury caused by something I'd did when I was a more youthful, village idiot.  It'll heal in 2 to 6 weeks.  I'm going to figure out how to straighten that rear bar, and then will probably sell off this rear set, and buy the Heed rear bars, after a member on another forum mounts his and sends pictures.    My 5' wife can't get her knees over these bars, and the Heed look better suited to her..   That, plus I felt that these bars should have performed better.  Yes, they spared the bike any damage to the right rear of the bike, but had the side case been mounted, it very well might have been damaged.  If not scratched, then the lock could have been broken as the bar impacted, and pushed back against it.  Not sure, and no way to know.  

 

As I told Alan, I'm not sure exactly what happened to cause the tip over.  He had emphasized working the turns with the handle bars locked to the tank, i.e. absolute minimum turning radius.  I had been doing ok during the drill, but realized I had been "cheating" a bit, taking larger arcs after I left the white lines, and not really turning at the true minimum radius.  So, I was trying to lock up the bars and balance.  At the same time, I was beginning to get sloppy with my clutch.  Even though my hand didn't feel fatigued, I realized later that my shifts were probably becoming sloppy because of exactly that, clutch hand fatigue.   If one is not totally in control between clutch and throttle, while the handle bars are locked to the tank, mother nature in the form of gravity will soon let you know. 😁  So, that's probably the cause of my little boo-boo, popping the clutch and sticking the rear tire at an inopportune moment in the turn.  Once I reached that proverbial tipping point, I instantly thought "I'm going down, not a thing I can do to stop it, this is gonna suck, and yeah, I'm gonna look stupid to boot!"  Conclusion:  I remember with crystal clarity exactly what I was thinking as I was about to dump the bike, while not having a clue as to exactly what I did to cause it. 🤔🙄😬🤷‍♂️

 

Again, thanks and appreciation to Alan for his time, and helping getting me back up to speed with my riding skills.  (Which of course, are still quite a work in progress.)  Sorry that more couldn't have joined, to benefit from it. 

 

🍻👍

[TEWKS]

Sorry to hear about your tip over and your re-injured ribs. That’s painful!  So, we‘ve got Brad (Boxflyer) doing tech days at the F/ START rallies!  Now, when Alan (9Mary7) moves to the southeast maybe we can ask him if he’d do a class at one of them, it be fun! 

[wbw6cos]

A slight tangent to the topic, but still relevant:  I would highly recommend case guards from illum works.  I personally know that those bars will handle at least 5 low-speed drops.  But, who is counting?     I can even source the matching spray paint to cover any imperfections that only include scratches to the finish. 

 

I was  surprised to see your guard bent like that.  I am thinking there would have been an issue if you had the side cases on, which I am guessing that you did not.

 

Reading your prior postings (if my comprehension level was adequate) I surmised that you are coming out of a hiatus, of sorts(?) or prepping to come out of seasonal cycles for riding.  Kudos to you for the effort to ride well.   I have done a few low-speed maneuvers in a cul-de-sac in the hood, but I get skittish about dropping the bike so the training is not too intense, if you know what I mean (and I think you do!)  

[Scott9999]

7 hours ago, wbw6cos said:

A slight tangent to the topic, but still relevant:  I would highly recommend case guards from illum works.  I personally know that those bars will handle at least 5 low-speed drops.  But, who is counting?     I can even source the matching spray paint to cover any imperfections that only include scratches to the finish. 

 

I was  surprised to see your guard bent like that.  I am thinking there would have been an issue if you had the side cases on, which I am guessing that you did not.

 

Reading your prior postings (if my comprehension level was adequate) I surmised that you are coming out of a hiatus, of sorts(?) or prepping to come out of seasonal cycles for riding.  Kudos to you for the effort to ride well.   I have done a few low-speed maneuvers in a cul-de-sac in the hood, but I get skittish about dropping the bike so the training is not too intense, if you know what I mean (and I think you do!)  

re: Rear guard.   The front guards (this one, Illum, and others) are supported three dimensionally, i.e. bars connecting together, and spreading the load to three mount points.  The rear guard just hangs out there unsupported, on two mount points.  Alan pointed out that it looks like the vendor supplied mount plate to which the lower part of the rear crash guard connects, itself appears bent.  However, I'm pretty certain that the bar has a wrinkle in it as well.   I'm not sure that simply a thicker walled bar or stronger base metal would stop this from happening.   There needs to be a better design.  The tubular metal held up fine front and rear, i.e. it didn't crush or deform.

 

re: Intense training?  Hey, no guts, no glory.  What are you going to do, when you've got a drill Sargent barking commands behind you, "Faster, now lock those bars, LOCK 'EM, Counterbalance!!  Counterbalance!!  Come on you coward, you'd make any rookie cop look like a road racer by comparison."   🤣🤣🤣🤣   I'm kidding, of course!   Alan was a terrific coach by what he DIDN'T say, and HOW he added context to the little things, i.e. why we do this or that.  Never said a word about how I actually performed, other than "Uhhh, before you lift that bike backup with your rear end, ya might wanna set the kick stand down on the other side, or you might end up with matching scratched crash bars."  Like that, just pointed out the little things about the exercise.  🙃😁

 

Actually, I'm my own worst enemy.  I'm a perfectionist, it's occasionally a blessing, but usually a character flaw.   I used to play college level tennis.  I gave up the sport for various reasons, but chief among them was that I simply COULDN'T play a casual game of tennis.  And, it wasn't about winning or losing, either.  It was about HOW I performed the task, both form and function.  I'd go play a couple of sets, but afterwards, I'd end up working for four or six hours practicing until my arm fell off.  Then the next week, I'd try to practice the eight hours a day that I used to do in college.   So, yeah, I'm probably going to go out again and hit this pretty hard, probably every time I go out to ride for the next couple of months.   

 

I'm never going to be that guy hanging it all out on the twisties at speed, because THOSE tip overs do a lot more than hurt.  But I can't tolerate being the dork sitting by the side of the road with his shinny, new, expensive bike laying on it's side, because he doesn't know how to turn the dang thing in a parking lot or garage.  🙄  Where I live, there are many one lane roads, U-turns can end up on unstable dirt (or worse) if not done tightly, and the roads are seldom flat, usually sloped, or at pretty good grades.  It's a practical skillset that I need to get better at.

 

All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend one of the bright, sunny, warmer days we had in a while.  A nice lunch, then an hour or so playing like kids in a parking lot.  😁  (Well, um, maybe older, more wrinkled, and DEFINITELY more ...uhh... "rotund" kids.) 😅😎

[9Mary7]

On 4/8/2022 at 11:16 AM, Scott9999 said:

the exercise

Thanks for the nice write up Scott, sorry I am about your ribs!! 

Wanted to say publicly that you impressed with your willingness to try as well as your desire to improve. Fun afternoon as I needed the slow speed work to be ready for the season, and always happy to help if I can.

 

And you posted pics so it really happened........

[9Mary7]

On 4/8/2022 at 3:41 AM, TEWKS said:

moves to the southeast

Escrow scheduled to close on Tuesday the 12th.